Olivier PEYRE
Team adventure
Olivier is 37 years old and was born in Grenoble. He lives today on the slopes of the Prorel in Briançon. An engineer by training, his avid passion for travel and paragliding has gradually moved him away from that career plan. On July 11, 2008, after dreaming for 14 years, Olivier gave the first pedal push of his round about the world without and engine. 7 years later, on December 29, 2015, he crossed the starting line again and closed the loop. Today Olivier is an adventurer-lecturer. He wishes to convey the values of optimism acquired during his journey through his book "En route avec Aile" and his conferences. He is also working on a documentary-film and planning out other expeditions.
Zero carbon world tour :
A childhood dream: go around the world. One constraint: "zero carbon" to move forward. Olivier Peyre has lived a 105 000 km adventure through 45 countries. A bike for the Earth element, the sailboat-stop for the water element, and a paraglider for the air element. In 7 years of non-motorized travel, he travelled the Caribbean with former inmates, cycled the remotness of Western Australia, flew over isolated foothills in Tibet and survived an aerial military attack in Turkey. From his crazy adventure, worthy of the heavenly bums, this adventurer-lecturer brings back an exalting and optimistic narrative. Author of the book "En route avec Aile" (ed. Chemin des cretes), Olivier Peyre reminds us what the word "freedom" really means.
It is from this crazy project that was born the first Kruyer harness, a lightweight but comfortable harness, to take everywhere with you.
How long have you been flying?
I started in 2001 after a free-fall parachute jump over Cape Canaveral. It seemed obvious to me that I had to stop pushing back my childhood dreams. Paragliding allowed to fly using little more than a bit of sail, some knowledge and time to walk to the top. It was the most beautiful equation to defy gravity. After that, I never looked back!
Your harness
The Kruyer! I'm very proud that the first version was specially designed by Denis Cortella to meet my needs for lightness and comfort for my round the world cycling. I attach the Sak 2 from time to time, depending on the configuration I want, for the security of an airbag without compromising too much on weight.
The Karver 2 combined with the two-seater module serves as my harness for tandem flights. In this case, the Kruyer 2 and Sak II are used for the passenger. The Karver 2 is light enough to be carried during flight and flight with the safety/legality of a reserve parachute. But in this case, I remove the foam and get a good compromise.
Why Kortel Design?
As a beginner, when I got in touch with Denis with my crazy idea of a round the world on a bike-sailboat-stop- paragliding without an engine, he immediately had my back to design a specific harness, light and comfortable. This is how the Kruyer was born from a meeting of a great dreamer with an experienced designer.
Your best flight?
After reaching Vanuatu on a sailboat, we landed on the island of Tanna where the eponymous active volcano was rumbling – "the most accessible in the world" according to tour guides. We readied our bivouac equipment ready and discreetly added my little mountain wing and my Kruyer harness. As we neared the very lip of the crater, the monster started spewing bombs 400 m above our heads, which fall right back where they came from. Pretty accurate the gunner! A little breeze started blowing, so I unfolded my wing and took off shaking in fear being sucked backwards. The breeze allowed me to soar for two long hours during which I played with the slope of the volcano, and the terrible rumblings behind me. A bunch of children of the neighboring tribe ran up to me and we played to clap in hands and hold on for small jumps a few meters long between two bursts of laughter. The sun finally came down on that amazing day made of rich encounters with nature and humans.
Any plans?
My return after 7 years of a nomadic lifestyle has taught me an important lesson: the fixed walls of a house cannot sustain my happiness made of large bowls of fresh air and a close contact with the great outdoors. The constant nomadic lifestyle was awsome but isn't sustainable either. We had to find a compromise with my partner Nadège. It is therefore in a project of a semi nomadic Habitat that we are building our future projects: to set up a home-van and thus establish our mobile base camp to live in the most beautiful mountain spots.
In parallel, a documentary film project of En route avec Aile is underway and will complement the eponymous book (available on the website www.enrouteavecaile.com).
